San Francisco Frontiers - NATO soldiers clash with Serb protesters in Kosovo

Kosovo's Serbs had boycotted last month's elections in the northern towns, which allowed ethnic Albanians to take control of local councils despite a minuscule turnout of under 3.5 percent of voters.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti officially installed the mayors last week, defying calls to ease the tensions by the European Union and the United States, which have both championed the territory's 2008 independence from Serbia.

Early Monday, groups of Serbs gathered in front of the municipal building in the Serb-majority town of Zvecan and tried to force their way into the building.

Many Serbs are demanding the withdrawal of Kosovo police forces -- whose presence in northern Kosovo has long sparked resistance -- as well as the ethnic Albanian mayors they do not consider their true representatives.

Police responded with tear gas and pushed them back, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

NATO-led peacekeepers in the KFOR mission at first tried to separate protesters from the police, but later started to disperse the crowd using shields and batons, an AFP journalist saw.

Several protesters replied by hurling rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers, but were quickly repelled a few hundred meters away from the Zvecan municipal building.

Kosovo police said "organised" demonstrators also threw tear gas in northern Kosovo towns, home to many ethnic Serbs who reject Kosovo's independence from Serbia, which it proclaimed in 2008.

"The protesters, using violence and throwing tear gas, tried to cross the security cordons and make a forced entry into the municipality facility," Kosovo police said in a statement.

"Police were forced to use legal means, such as (pepper) spray, to stop the protesters and bring the situation under control."

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and Belgrade and its key allies Russia and China have refused to recognise it, effectively preventing Kosovo from having a seat at the United Nations.

Serbs in Kosovo remained largely loyal to Belgrade, especially in the north, where they make up a majority and reject every move by Pristina to consolidate its control over the region.

- International concern -

KFOR said it had bolstered its presence in northern Kosovo following the latest developments and urged Belgrade and Pristina to engage in an EU-led dialogue to reduce tensions.

"We call on all sides to refrain from actions that could inflame tensions or cause escalation," KFOR said in a statement.

Police had already used tear gas Friday to disperse Serbs in northern Kosovo who protested the installation of the mayors.

Belgrade responded by placing its army on high alert and ordered forces towards the Serbian border with Kosovo.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking on a visit to Kenya, said that "Serbs are fighting for their rights in northern Kosovo".

"A big explosion is looming in the heart of Europe, where NATO in 1999 carried out an aggression against Yugoslavia," Lavrov said, referring to the 1999 NATO intervention against Belgrade that effectively ended the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian guerillas.

The US ambassador and European Union envoy have summoned the ethnic Albanian mayors to a meeting in the Kosovo capital of Pristina in a bid to ease tensions.

Two media teams from Pristina reported that protesters has slashed their tires and spray-painted their vehicles, while a local journalists' association called on law enforcers to provide a safe working environment for the media.

F.Young--SFF